Another Reason For Merit Selection

No informed person should need yet another rationale for merit selection of judges, but the tawdry circumstances enveloping this year`s judicial elections certainly provide one.

Illinois` judicial elections have always been tainted by undue applications of partisanship, patronage and power. The addition of

``subcircuit`` judicial districts-dividing Cook County into smaller territories each comprising just a few wards or townships-has brought the degradation of the system to a new level.

The stated purpose for creating these local districts was to increase the number of minorities on the bench. The process may do a bit of that, and-not incidental in the measure`s legislative passage-it will create some more suburban Republican judges as well.

But it will not bring abler, more highly qualified minorities and Republicans to the courts. Indeed, indications are that the setup just makes it easier to reward hacks while squeezing out the best and brightest.

In legal and political circles, noxious stories are circulating about subcircuit backing being traded for favors and promises, including reports of legislative aspirants who made deals to ``settle`` for judgeships. Many candidates publicly proclaim their jurisprudential independence and privately brag about their local committeemen`s support.

And people wonder why Cook County courts are so corrupt and mismanaged?

The new subcircuits have helped produce a record number of court hopefuls in the March 17 election, compounding the confusion and frustration voters already feel in the face of the long judicial ballot.

The unprecedented volume also has spawned a frenzy of fund-seeking. Many lawyers-the main source of judicial-election campaign funds-complain they`re compelled to give to dozens of campaign committees. Candidates include judges before whom some of these contributors argue cases-an unconscionable circumstance that Illinois codes of judicial and legal conduct unfortunately do not address directly.

The judicial election system has long been unwise and unseemly. Now it`s simply gross.

Still, there`s a possibility that this year`s wretched excess of wallet-twisting could provoke a stab at a solution: Some lawyers whose bank accounts have been hard hit say they`re fed up enough to support a switch to appointive merit selection. With a state legislature largely run by lawyers, these tapped-out attorneys should complain loudly and persuasively to their colleagues in Springfield.